Film Society to Host New York Engagement of UCLA Festival of Preservation

June 21, 2011

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UCLA Festival of Preservation

July 15-18

The historical sweep and technical wizardry of the UCLA Film & Television Archive's preservation projects are showcased in the Archive’s Biennial Festival of Preservation. The Film Society of Lincoln Center hosts its premiere New York engagement, featuring breathtaking new restorations of overlooked classics by Robert Altman, Cecil B. DeMille and Douglas Sirk, rare films by Samuel Beckett and John Steinbeck, and much more.

Other highlights include the screening of three LGBT film rarities from the Outfest Legacy Project including Debra Chasnoff’s and Kim Klausner’s 1984 documentary CHOOSING CHILDREN about the experiences and struggles of lesbian couples going through the adoption process, as well as a trio of episodes from the “This Is Your Life” television series that featured reunions of Holocaust survivors. (All 35mm preservation prints are screened courtesy of UCLA Film and Television Archive.)

Screening with:THE FLOWER OF DOOM (1917) 70minDirector: Rex Ingram35mmA gritty drama set in the shadowy world of gang warfare in Chinatown.

THE CHALICE OF SORROW/THE FLOWER OF DOOM will screen (with piano accompaniment by Makia Matsumura) at the Walter Reade Theater on July 17 at 8:00PM.

COME BACK TO THE 5 AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN (1982) 109minDirector: Robert Altman35mmSandy Dennis, Cher, and Karen Black star as James Dean fans who reunite in a small Texas town, in Altman’s stellar adaptation of an original play. Preservation funded by The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation.

COME BACK TO THE 5 AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN screens at the Walter Reade Theater July 15 at 6:00PM (The screening will be followed afterward by a Q&A with Oscar-nominated production designer David Gropman, production executive Peter Newman, and distributor Ira Deutchman.)and July 18 at 1:15PM.

THE CRUSADES (1935) 125minDirector: Cecil B. DeMille35mmDeMille’s saga about Jerusalem’s takeover by Islamic warrior Saladin is a sturdy entertainment crafted with brio by a master at the height of his powers. Preservation funded by The Cecil B. DeMille Foundation and The Packard Humanities Institute.

THE CRUSADES screens at the Walter Reade Theater on July 18 at 6:15PM.

CRY DANGER (1951) 79minDirector: Robert Parrish35mmIn an underappreciated noir that crackles with sardonic dialogue, pitch-perfect Dick Powell plays an excon combing downtown Los Angeles for the gang that framed him. With Rhonda Fleming and an amazing Richard Erdman. Preservation funded by the Film Noir Foundation.

CRY DANGER screens at the Walter Reade Theater on July 15 at 4:00PM and July 17 at 5:00PM.

Highlighting the Outfest Legacy Project: Three Films

Three extraordinary and often prescient film rarities highlight the diversity of LGBT representations offered in the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation.35mm

QUEENS AT HEART (1965) 22minDirector: unknownAn amazing portrait of four male to female transsexuals, QUEENS AT HEART portrays a rare and poignant glimpse into pre-Stonewall transsexual life made by the Southeastern Pictures Corporation. Despite this film having been made with a mainstream lens, the subjects’ journey is depicted with dignity and respect as they explore gender and sexuality. QUEENS AT HEART includes very early footage of drag balls in the New York area.

MONA’S CANDLE LIGHT (1950) 28minDirector: unknownThe amateur film MONA’S CANDLE LIGHT is among a relatively small number of films depicting gay people before gay liberation. This brief film, discovered at a flea market, and depicting patrons of a lesbian bar (in San Francisco circa 1950) represents an exceedingly rare example of queer life on its own turf, and on its own terms. Deceptively simple, and all-too-brief, it depicts onstage performances at the titular bar, identified by a neon sign.

CHOOSING CHILDREN (1984) 45minDirectors: Debra Chasnoff and Kim KlausnerDebra Chasnoff’s and Kim Klausner’s groundbreaking documentary, CHOOSING CHILDREN, presents portraits of several lesbian mothers who were among the first to make the historic choice to become parents. Interviewed for the most part in their home settings, with their families, the women featured in the film share intimate details about parenting, familial structures and support systems, and about working to build a better future for their kids.

Highlighting the Outfest Legacy Project: Three Films screens at the Walter Reade Theater on July 18 at 8:45PM.

Screening with:THE FORGOTTEN VILLAGE (1941) 67minDirector: Herbert Kline35mmJohn Steinbeck wrote this parable about an indigenous couple in Mexico whose son is caught between the worlds of tradition and science. Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute.

Preceded by:News of the Day (1942) 9minNewsreel short from May 28, 1942NATIVE LAND/THE FORGOTTEN VILLAGE screens at the Walter Reade Theater on July 15 at 8:30PM.

On the Vitaphone! (1946) 90minDirector: variousA delightful sampling of these landmark early sound films. Starring the top talent of the day, including Born and Lawrence, Jimmy Conlin and Myrtle Glass, Carlena Diamond, and more.

On the Vitaphone! will screen at the Walter Reade Theater on July 16 at 1:15PM.

RENDEZVOUS WITH ANNIE (1946) 80minDirector: Allan Dwan35mmIn Dwan’s tender wartime comedy of errors, questions of family honor arise after a corporal (Eddie Albert) surprises his wife with a trip from London. Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute.

RENDEZVOUS WITH ANNIE screens at the Walter Reade Theater on July 16 at 8:45PM.

SLEEP, MY LOVE screens at the Walter Reade Theater on July 15 at 2:00PM and July 17 at 3:00PM.

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (1944) 56minDirector: Anthony Mann35mmMann’s early gothic B-thriller follows a vet returning from the South Pacific and lured into a psychological nightmare by the promise of love. Preservation funded by Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Screening with:THE BIG SHAKEDOWN (1934) 64minDirector: John Francis Dillon35mmBette Davis plays the fiancée of a pharmacist who falls in with gangsters in this fusion of melodrama and gangster picture. Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute.

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT/THE BIG SHAKEDOWN screens at the Walter Reade Theater on July 16 at 3:30PM and July 18 at 3:30PM.

This Is Your Life: Survivors of the HolocaustThree episodes of the famous television series featuring three exceptional women—all survivors of the Holocaust. Preservation funded by Righteous Persons Foundation and the Ronald T. Shedlo Preservation Fund.35mm

This Is Your Life: “Hanna Bloch Kohner” (1953) 30minDirector: Axel Gruenberg(The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Julie Kohner, the daughter of Hanna Bloch Kohner.)

Screening with:This Is Your Life: “Sara Veffer” (1961) 30minDirector: Richard GottliebThis Is Your Life: Survivors of the Holocaust will screen at the Walter Reade Theater on July 17 at 12:30PM.

Waiting For Godot (Play of the Week) (1961) 102minDirector: Alan SchneiderDigitalAfter years of post-HUAC blacklisting, Zero Mostel enjoyed a career breakthrough in this Broadway-caliber staging of Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece.

Screening with:Samuel Beckett’s Film (1965) 20minDirector: Alan SchneiderBuster Keaton stars in Nobel Prize-winning playwright Samuel Beckett’s lone work for projected cinema. Preservation funded through the Avant-Garde Masters program funded by The Film Foundation and administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Waiting For Godot (Play of the Week)/Samuel Beckett’s Film will screen at the Walter Reade Theater on July 16 at 6:15PM.

SCREENING SCHEDULE FOR UCLA Festival of Preservation

Screening Venue:

The Film Society of Lincoln Center – Walter Reade Theater

165 West 65 Street, between Broadway & Amsterdam (upper level)

Friday, July 15

2:00 SLEEP, MY LOVE (96min)

4:00 CRY DANGER (79min)

6:00 COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN (109min)

8:30 NATIVE LAND (80min)/FORGOTTEN VILLAGE (67min)/News of the Day (9min)

The Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrates American and international cinema, to recognize and support new filmmakers, and to enhance awareness, accessibility and understanding of the art among a broad and diverse film going audience.